The Mazer Cup International - Home Competition

The website is up and running for the home mead maker portion of the competition (the commercial side is still being updated and more information is being added). We're still getting people and support folks on board so some of the information will be getting updated intermittently and the places and people become available.

We have drop off points in Denver and Boulder, CO for those of you who are local and the website will be updated with that information later today.

Thanks for your patience and understanding as we spin this competition up. Check the updated Mazer Cup International site out at

I won't have any mead ready by April, but can the general public attend?

Are there any thoughts to pairing the competition with a mead "conference", with speakers, display booths, etc.?

Eric

It's a bummer but there won't be any public events for the competition this year. It takes a lot of cash to put a public event on, and we're not a cash rich organization to the point of where we can do that. It is our plan to work this event into being able to support a public event, but for now we don't have the scratch to do it.

This year our goal is to put on the home and commercial competition and get our organization staffed up to the level of where we can support both competitions and begin the process of making an industry oriented event that follows the model of ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Produces) with elements of the Unified Grape and Wine Symposium.

So it is the plan to get back to a public event. One of the things professional mead producers like about the competition only event is that they aren't stuck on the floor pouring mead for two days straight. The current format allows them to talk to other Meadmakers about their bees, their equipment, etc and involve themselves in industry talk.

It may seem like a festival is a great way to get people to notice their mead, but a good portion of the crowd are there to get drunk on free mead and are simply migrating from table to table getting drunk. I can't blame them but formats like that take about 3-4 cases of each type of mead that they're pouring, and for a small producer that's a significant portion of their mead if they have 8 entries. They also have to ship that to the competition site and shipping takes licensing and freight isn't cheap.

Long story short, no public event this year, but we are committed to opening up to the public within the next two years if we're able to raise some seed money to do the event right.

I enjoyed the International Mead Festivals, the booths were wonderful, got to meet a lot of great people. But the cost is no exageration -- under past managment it took a few years just to get it to break even, and the expenses, all told, are fairly heavy. Oskaar and Vickie are reworking and reorganizing things so I'm sure that the level of involvement will pick up soon.

It can be difficult to get speakers -- I don't have much experience here, but it seems that for events like these, compensation may not be much more than having hotel costs for the speakers paid. The speakers that do attend these events are usually doing it more for their devotion to their area of interest than anything else, and as it is, they're taking on time off from jobs and time away from familes to be there.

I think we're going to see the level of involvement in the newly organized Mazer Cup gradually rise. For those who have been following events -- a little while ago, Oskaar took on the task of organizing the home meadmaker competition for the International Mead Festival, a new event for a competition that had previously been all commercial. He did a fantastic job and the first year, entries were the equal of the commercial folk. I'm sure we'll see much the same with the Mazer Cup, with both Oskaar and Vickie working behind the scenes, as it gradually picks up momentum.

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Dan McFeeley

"Meon an phobail a thogail trid an chultur"
(The people's spirit is raised through culture)

My Social Networking

Okie doke. Registered, submitted, paid, and hopefully getting it packaged this weeked if I get a chance. If not, I'll have it in the mail within a week or so. I figure the earlier I get my entry there the longer it'll have to settle down from the shipping.

1. How much are you "hurt" by having 2 12 oz bottles? Is it just the chance of one breaking or is it more than that?

2. If I have a mead in 2 Grolsch bottles, how much do you think it will hurt things to pour it into 2 bottles and then bottle cap it for the competition?

BTW, the mead in question is a "traditional" mead.

Dude, not sure what you're asking here, whaddya mean "hurt?"

If you're asking why we need 3 bottles, it's simple. We have multiple judges at a table, if we need to go back after a flight and compare again the mead is poured again and we judge it again. That's one bottle.

If you go to the medal round, that's the second bottle. Then there's none left for the BoS round.

If a bottle breaks during shipment (which is not at all uncommon), there's only one left. What you seem to be asking is if we really need three bottles. The answer is yes, we do.

So if you're going to re-bottle, just do it the day that you ship it. Mead is amazingly resilient and resistant to oxidation as compared to wine. Be sure to minimize contact with oxygen as much as is possible and flood your receiving bottles with CO2, as that will help.

i noticed on the entry rules it has april 3rd as the cutoff dates for entries but the pdf link for the entry rules says april 11th for the cutoff date...is that just a typo or would that be mail ins for one and drop offs for the other? just a heads up =)

If you're asking why we need 3 bottles, it's simple. We have multiple judges at a table, if we need to go back after a flight and compare again the mead is poured again and we judge it again. That's one bottle.

If you go to the medal round, that's the second bottle. Then there's none left for the BoS round.

If a bottle breaks during shipment (which is not at all uncommon), there's only one left. What you seem to be asking is if we really need three bottles. The answer is yes, we do.

So if you're going to re-bottle, just do it the day that you ship it. Mead is amazingly resilient and resistant to oxidation as compared to wine. Be sure to minimize contact with oxygen as much as is possible and flood your receiving bottles with CO2, as that will help.

Cheers, Oskaar

By "hurt" I meant how much does it mess up your chances for a medal. Based on your answer, it looks like it doesn't do that, but it would prevent a "Best of Show". That's all I meant.

I was just debating whether to try to send in the 2 bottles or to wait until my next batch of the same mead is ready and enter then instead.

i noticed on the entry rules it has april 3rd as the cutoff dates for entries but the pdf link for the entry rules says april 11th for the cutoff date...is that just a typo or would that be mail ins for one and drop offs for the other? just a heads up =)